Reliefs

Hellenistic art struck out a new path in
the class of reliefs. There are some restorations. A
gulf separates these works from the friezes of the
Parthenon and the
Mausoleum. Whereas relief-sculpture in
the classical period abjured backgrounds and picturesque
accessories, we find here a highly pictorial treatment.

The subjects moreover are, in the instances chosen, of a
character to which Greek sculpture before Alexander's
time hardly offers a parallel. In Fig. 181 we see a ewe
giving suck to her lamb. Above, at the right, is a hut
or stall, from whose open door a dog is just coming out;
at the left is an oak tree. In Fig. 182 a lioness
crouches with her two cubs. Above is a sycamore tree,
and to the right of it a group of objects which tell of
the rustic worship of Bacchus.

Each of the two reliefs
decorated a fountain or something of the sort. In the
one the overturned milk-jar served as a water- spout; in
the other the open mouth of one of the cubs answered the
same purpose. Generally speaking, the pictorial reliefs
seem to have been used for the interior decoration of
private and public buildings. By their subjects many of
them bear witness to that love of country life and that
feeling for the charms of landscape which are the most
attractive traits of the Hellenistic period.